So I've been having an internal conflict the last few weeks since being a part of this sub in particular. I work in low level NHS work, full time, 12.5 hr shifts, perpetually exhausted. But I feel (probably illogically but I still feel it) that a lot of antiwork sentiment (which I, on paper, agree with) doesn't apply, or would be selfish for me to agree with in my case?
I don't work for an exploitative business owner who sells shit nobody needs and exploits my hours. I'm part of a hospital staff at the front lines of nationalised healthcare, where every absence is a setback in patient care. People don't just not get a chair or sandwich when staff fight for their rights, they get substandard healthcare that, at my ward level, could kill them.
This leads to me feeling I don't have any right to 'fight the system'. Because doing so has an impact on people staying alive. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a vascular surgeon or anything, just a low band HCA (CSW or CNA is American equivalent I think). But despite agreeing with the political goal of this group and the whole socialist underlyings of it, I always feel excluded by it. There's a lot of lip service paid to our health system in the UK, with precious little actual recognition (same with teaching, social work, sanitation, probably a thousand other job categories I'm blanking on right now) but part of that lip service seems to come with a caveat that we as workers in said industry don't get the right to complain, to strike, to feel bad about our jobs. We're 'heroes', 'angels', and angels don't complain about getting basically minimum wage, they just do what they do for the good of humanity.
I think it makes it worse that my manager (ward sister) is in the same boat, so I can't lament about the shittiness of my management. We're mostly ran shift to shift by the charge nurse, who usually is a stressed band five trying to deal with their medical job and also all of of bugging them about schedules and manager shit. They put the work in. Our highest band (read, highest paying) nurses, who are only a band down from doctors or so, are the most hands on with patients, always there to help, they'll assist on patient changes without being asked. I can't blame shitty management, because my management are overworked nursing staff exhausted by the system, sme as the people they are also forced to manage on top of their actual qualified duties. Obviously higher up management are kinda douchey, but the ones making our schedule and taking calls when we ring in sick are similarly knackered colleagues, not pricks.
Idk, just been thinking a lot. Anyone else got similar thoughts, or a way to stop myself spiralling into them? Keep on keeping on healthcare comrades x